Modding Greenforce lights

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
1,912
Location
New Zealand
I have been commissioned to modify 2 Greenforce lights.

1st is a Tri star LED light head with a very looonnng and thin cannister. It has 10 sub C 3000mah NiMh cells in a row!!!

This is what it looks like opened up and this is what the beam looks like.

greenforce.jpg


GreenforceLED.jpg
.

To be honest its pretty disappointing. It looks like it uses 3 Luxeon LEDs running at 1 amp. My W200 using a R2 and reflector puts out more light, is smaller and runs for longer!


W200R2.jpg


( This is a W200 R2 aspheric beam for reference purposes only)
Anyway the light its self is built like the proverbial. & the lens is as thick as 2 short planks.

Anyway stay tuned for the upgrade pics and also tear down pics of the Greenforce HID.
 
Last edited:

kiwi_diver

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
Messages
2
Location
New Zealand
I can't believe you've just txt'd me to say my GF HID to LED conversion is ready, I only gave it to you at ten this morning!!!! You are the dogs biscuits man, you really are.

Is that it I can see burning the top of my gum tree from 35 km away??:twothumbs
 

DM51

Flashaholic
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Messages
13,338
Location
Borg cube #51
You are the dogs biscuits man, you really are. :twothumbs
LOL!

That's very impressive work, Packhorse. Greenforce are premium manufacturers, but you've made them look pretty complacent with this BIG improvement to one of their products.
 

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
1,912
Location
New Zealand
Shh! dont tell Mark! He gave me his first and it will be at least a week before I get his finished.
 

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
1,912
Location
New Zealand
2GF.jpg


GFquad.jpg


GFasphericBeam.jpg



Well sorry guys. I got so excited by what Kiwi_Diver offered me as payment I didnt stop to take before and during pics. I havent even taken time to eat dinner!
Anyway the light arrived with out the bulb ( 21w HID I think) so I didnt even get to try it out anyway.

The light head is a huge beast. Way bigger than it needs to be for the LED set up. Even the Tri Star one is too big for my liking. The can is also quite big. it holds 20 5/4 AA size NiMh which are the same size as 18650 Li Ions ( talk about a killer battery pack mod!!!). While the tristar uses a "Arrow" cannister with 10 sub C's


1st thing to do was strip the guts out. That was easy enough. The bulb sits on a threaded insert and after unscrewing that the ballast pulls out.
I then mounted a pre made Quad XR-E aspheric assembly and heat sink to the threaded insert ( after a little machining) and stuck a 2.8 amp driver on the back. If you are familiar with my Quad aspheric maglite build this is no different.

The pain was getting the lens out. On this head and the Tri Star one the lens is held in by an O ring. Its pretty hard removing the O ring with out damaging it. ( Oh well O rings are cheap). I then thought the lens would simply push out like the Tri Star one did. It didnt. I used all kind of force on it. I even tried boiling water to get the aluminium to expand.
In the end I gave up. The lens is glued in. I carefully removed the original reflector ( Not really. Its a mess) with some pliers. The hole left is a standard MR16 size at a guess. I had hoped to machine it out more and try fitting 6 aspheric assemblies in there but due to the glued in lens it was not to be.

Anyway its all done now and while it was apart I replaced all the sealing O rings in the head and cable (there are 9 Orings that seal in the cable alone plus the others added for grip!).

The beam shot has been taken to my referenced standard. 2.4 meters from camera ( Canon G10) iso 80 f2.8 1/30thsec. ( as are the 2 shots above). Its a little over exposed.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

silent solutions

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
Messages
7
Ahh so this is why my light is taking so long!!!Greg did you try using compressed air to get the stuck lens on the other head?
 

silent solutions

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
Messages
7
To be fair to the tristar led it is about 5 year old technology.They also lie to there customers to get them to buy a new generation head buy saying the leds are fixed and cant be replaced yeah right.Looking forward to the mod.
 

kiwi_diver

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
Messages
2
Location
New Zealand
Ahh so this is why my light is taking so long!!!?

Ahhh, sorry I appeared to have queue-jumped Mark, it was Gregs idea, honest...!:nana:

I don't think he tried compressed air. No matter, in the end, he does not think he could have got 6 aspherics in there even if he had been able to mill out the front a bit. I'm pretty happy with what he's done and my Revo-dream PPO2 monitor has a new home.

Ray.
 

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
1,912
Location
New Zealand
No. I didnt but I dont think it would have worked. The lens really is glued in.

I should get my lathe going again tomorrow so can work on a custom heat sink for yours then.

But for now I will be studying up on my new rEvo dream. Thanks Ray!!
 

silent solutions

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
Messages
7
The revo should by a better choice than those crappy jurgensen handsets hopefully you can get that tapping sequence sorted.Gotta go and fill a scrubber before the morning where I will be diving without my light.:whistle:
 

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
1,912
Location
New Zealand
I sat on the couch for an hour or so last night tap tap taping. Finally got the hang of it.

I expect to have your light back before to you late this week. If there is any hold up I can send you a loaner if required.

Of course next mission ( after your light ) is to make up a 3 cell holder with P port.
 

gav6280

Enlightened
Joined
May 1, 2008
Messages
556
Location
10 Min from NDAC.
So you've finally gone over to the dark side and stopped blowing bubbles then......Cool.....

A bit off topic but have you gone for the fully electronic version, what's your impressions so far?
 

Goldigger

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Messages
327
Location
London UK
Packhorse,
Can you squeeze 3 p7's with ledil boom reflectors or 3 mc-e's with reflectors/optics in the tristar head?

3 ledil booms should measure 44.4mm at the widest point
 

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
1,912
Location
New Zealand
So you've finally gone over to the dark side and stopped blowing bubbles then......Cool.....

A bit off topic but have you gone for the fully electronic version, what's your impressions so far?


I havent brought a rEvo, just a rEvo dream which is a 2 channel PPO monitor with HUD. I am fitting it to my IDA 71 CCCR ( Chemical Closed Circuit Rebreather) from the CCCP. But thats really a story for a different forum! It will be mCCR. I have only dived it in a pool as a pure O2 unit so far. Should get it in the lake in a month or so.
 

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
1,912
Location
New Zealand
Packhorse,
Can you squeeze 3 p7's with ledil boom reflectors or 3 mc-e's with reflectors/optics in the tristar head?

3 ledil booms should measure 44.4mm at the widest point

Yes. Should be doable.

What kind of conditions do you dive in that would suit that set up?
 

Goldigger

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Messages
327
Location
London UK
Yes. Should be doable.

What kind of conditions do you dive in that would suit that set up?

I made up a 3xp7 led assembly to put in a greenforce head but the new tristar p4 head is smaller than the one you have worked with. So i never got round to putting it togther.

What kind of conditions do i dive, it varies really in the uk all depends where we dive and how deep also the vis can vary..
At the begining of the year we dived a wreck at 34m which was pitch black which could have been mistaken for a night dive, during the summer there is still some daylight.

I just like lighting the whole wreck up for all the other divers..:)
 

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
1,912
Location
New Zealand
Problem is with low viz conditions and 3 P7's all you are going to do is illuminate all the silt directly in front of you.
Think of it like driving in fog with your head lights on high.

What you need for those conditions is a tightly focused beam and P7's cant do that.
 

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
1,912
Location
New Zealand
All finished. Heat sink is a push fit. Its 20mm thick and when it heats up will expand and squeeze against the light head to conduct heat away to the water.
KaiDomain driver is mounted on the back of the heat sink driving all LEDs in parallel at 700ma a piece. This should allow the 12 v 3.0ah NiMh pack to drive the LEDs for up to 3 hours on high.

one-1.jpg

two-1.jpg

three-1.jpg

four.jpg

five.jpg
GreenforceLED.jpg

New.........................................VS.........................................Old
 
Last edited:

Goldigger

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Messages
327
Location
London UK
Packhorse,
The new head is virtually like the Greenforce quadrastar which uses 4 P4's 880lumens greenforce quote. £249

What does the battery voltage measure fully charged?

Thanks
 

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
1,912
Location
New Zealand
Its not a new head. Its the original tri star head which appears to be different from the current tristar head.

I did a quick search but couldnt find any decent pics of the quadrastar.

Battery is a 12V NiMh pack. Never measured it but I guess at full charge it will be the same as most other 12v Ni Mh packs. Upto 14 volt.
 
Top